The Pledging Tree FoundationThe Pledging Tree Foundation

Mission Statement

"The Pledging Tree Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote disciplined savings in financially challenged families." For any family, the principle of disciplined saving is essential to a secure financial future. For financia... Read more

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Mission Statement

"The Pledging Tree Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote disciplined savings in financially challenged families."

For any family, the principle of disciplined saving is essential to a secure financial future. For financially challenged families, this principle takes on an even greater importance. For these families, we believe that the power of disciplined saving will remain unrealized unless and until a systematic savings approach is adopted.

We strongly believe that, although our monetary aid to these families may not seem significant in terms of dollar value, the concept of disciplined saving itself is of great value.

To bring a long lasting impact on these families, The Pledging Tree Foundation aims to educate families about improving and maintaining financial well-being through training and workshops. Highly qualified financial advisors and representatives from financial institutions will conduct quarterly workshops on topics ranging from saving for the future to recovering from credit card debt and much more. These workshops will only be held for families enrolled into the program. Attendance is mandatory for at least 3 out of 4 workshops conducted in a year.

Description

The Foundation identifies families with financially challenged status defined as the total annual income from all sources less than $40,000 (For 1-2 adults & 1-2 children or no children). For additional dependents, the limit can be increased by $2,500/dependent.

Candidate families are considered by a selection committee and, if approved, are enrolled into the program.

The Foundation enlists sponsoring companies and individuals to pledge funds to match the savings of enrolled families.

Once a family is approved, they are required to open a savings account with one of the banks/investment companies

Each month, the enrolled family deposits any amount in their savings account and earns saving points equal to the amount saved, up to 100 points per month. Each saving point is worth 1 dollar and families can earn up to 1,200 saving points at the end of the 12-month enrollment period. The withdrawal of funds during the enrollment period results in the loss of saving points. For more detail on this, see Contribution and Matching Process section

At the end of enrollment period (twelve months), The Pledging Tree Foundation matches funds equal to the saving points earned by the enrolled family. After the completion of the enrollment period, a family’s funds will no longer earn saving points and it is hoped that the family will continue saving toward their goals.

To help ensure that the program has a meaningful, long-lasting impact on the savings habits of enrolled families, those families attend quarterly one-on-one financial counseling sessions with a certified financial planner (CFP) to help and guide them throughout the entire 12-month period. Attendance at all 4 financial counseling sessions is mandatory for enrolled families.

To redeem points at the end of the enrollment period, families must provide a copy of their 12-month bank statement and a confirmation of their attendance at all 4 quarterly one-on-one financial counseling sessions.